About

The Emerging Leaders Internship was created as a proactive approach to develop the next generation of church planters and leaders in Warsaw and throughout Poland. It is our desire to invest in high-potential young men who will carry into church plants and existing churches a DNA of Discipleship, Missional Community, Multi-Site Collaboration and Church Planting.

The Vision

Our Vision is to see 40 emerging church leaders connect with four of our fastest growing and most influential churches in Poland over the next five years. They will be a part of a one-year residency which is designed to equip them to be a part of leadership and church planting teams. Through practical experiences, leadership responsibilities, discipleship, intentional training, mentoring and coaching, we are developing a leadership pipeline for the health and growth of Kingdom focused churches.

The Biblical Inspiration

The beginning of I Samuel is the incredible story of woman who longed for a son. She promised God that, if given a son, she would give him back to the ministry of the temple. When she gives birth to Samuel she fulfills her promise and brings her young son to the Priest Eli under whose leadership Samuel would grow.

Eli wasn’t a perfect man. His personal life and ministry were questionable to say the least. If there was one thing Eli did however that would echo through eternity, it was invest in, mentor and raise Samuel is an Emerging Leader that would ultimately become one of the greatest ministry leaders Israel would ever know.

There were very specific areas of growth that were found in the life of Samuel as he grew under the leadership of Eli. These growth areas were only mentioned in the life of one other person in scripture: Jesus. It is said that they grew in:

Wisdom: The ability to apply spiritual knowledge to real life situations
Stature: Physical and practical skills, according to Vines: “attaining a state fit for a thing”
Favor with God: Spiritual Life and Relationship with God
Favor with Man: Leadership and Missional Relationships with others

Perhaps the greatest influence that Eli had in the life of Samuel was simply this:

“Eli helped Samuel recognize the call of God on his life.”

Samuel would have a ministry that, in the eyes of some, would ultimately surpass the influence Eli ever had. Samuel would experience God in deep and personal ways, he would speak on behalf of God to His people and he would anoint King David to the throne on which the Messiah would one day sit.

Our belief is that God has given this world sons and daughters who he has wired and called for full-time Christian ministry. We believe that the equipping the next generation of leaders is most effectively done in the context of the church and is the responsibility of current church leaders. We also believe that we are not perfect and our prayer is that God will give the next generation greater ministry influence than we will ever experience.

Our Strategy

In light of Samuel 1, we have developed our Strategy for the growth of Emerging Leaders throughout Poland:

Select—Equip—Mobilize—Support